Wednesday, 11 April 2012

MOTW - WHR Service Carr 2010

We’ve got a revolutionary railway vehicle for you this time on Model Of The Week.

Service Carriage 2010 was a breakthrough in terms of passenger comfort on the WHR because it carried the first on-board toilet in the line’s history.

It was a development which was long overdue. When the reborn railway was first opened to Rhyd Ddu there were some grumbles that the extended journey from Caernarfon was a long time to sit with your legs crossed and upon arrivial at South Snowdon (as once was) there was a veritable stampede towards the National Park’s toilets in the car park.

Our model of 2010 was scratch built in styrene by me and final detailing and painted carried out by Himself.

2010 took its design cues from the second generation of WHR saloons built at Boston Lodge and were slightly longer than the original Winson carriages at 13m and featured double doors at one end.

It was also inspired by the first example of the Service Carr concept, the FR’s 124, which you can read about here, which combined the functions of brake / guards compartment, toilet, buffet area and a diesel generator. Like 124, 2010 features smaller windows in which the bottom third is a blank panel. Its generator compartment has three narrower doors rather than the two on the FR version.

A notable difference between this and the other WHR new builds is the bogies. 2010 runs on a pair of re-gauged 760mm roller bearing bogies acquired from Romania rather than the plain bearing SAR bogies used to date. We’re representing these on the model using a set of N gauge Commonwealth bogies produced by Farish and robbed from one of their Mk1 Pullman carriages. (The bodyshell from which was subsequently flogged off on ebay for a pleasing amount!)

Another modeling challenge on this carriage was the handrails on either side of the doors. These could not be simply folded up from brass wire, like the simple design on the early carriages, but had to have the inset posts soldered on individually. A tricky wee job.

It is also worth noting the efficiency with which the carriage works team at Boston Lodge turned out this vehicle. The welded chassis and body frame, which was fabricated by a firm in Caernarfon arrived at Minffordd Yard in mid-January 2008, and by the end of August the complete carriage was being taken down to Porthmadog Harbour station for clearance testing against the platform canopy and in the sidings. All very impressive.

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About Me

Broadcaster, writer and railway modeller.
Best known for the 009 Festiniog Railway layout 'Dduallt' which I built with my father David in the early 1990's and which is still making appearances on the exhibition circuit.